Prime Minister Julia Gillard inspects ashes she picked up from the ruins of The Dunalley Primary which was destroyed by the bushfire that swept through the Tasmanian community on Friday night. Photo: Peter Mathew

After searching 245 properties in and around Dunalley, police still had not uncovered any fatalities.

The toll of property losses in Tasmania reached around 100 buildings, most of them homes or holiday cottages.

"It's an awful scene," Ms Gillard said. The devastation and the randomness of it. There's so much cruelty, and luck and fate."

She met one survivor, grandfather Bob Brakey, who left his house south of Dunalley with his wife when the fire came through last Friday, and he realised his water supply was inadequate for fighting it.

Mr Brakey saw his home of 25 years burn, but was philosophical. "I'm probably one of the lucky ones. My insurance company has worked pretty well for me. I'm still disappointed to lose everything, though."

At the commencement of an election year, Ms Gillard also posed for photos with locals and firemen in Dunalley.

She withheld a commitment to rebuild the Dunalley primary school, a key community building, but that was guaranteed later in the day by Greens Education minister, Nick McKim.

Ms Gillard also ran into grumpy locals, four days after the fire cost many of them everything.

"When are we going to get our generator?" shouted Lyol Kravitz, who lost his home at nearby Boomer Bay, from the verandah of the Dunalley pub.

Mr Kravitz said more should be done to clean up the town before hazardous materials swirled around further. "Out of 10 houses that went, eight of them were full of asbestos," he said.

The Tasman Peninsula was slowly re-opening to escorted traffic, and on the way back to Hobart airport, the prime minister passed a hastily hand-written placard on an idle bulldozer.